Taking Action – Specific Steps Leading to Your Goals

Friday, June 24th, 2011 at
2:01 pm

Journey to Success Part III

If this is your first time to my blog and you would like to read the previous posts in the series “Journey to Success” please follow the links below. I would also suggest you read the comments and replies as well as they often add a wealth of information. If you like a comment you are more than welcome to reply. Just hit the reply button beneath the comment.

“You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone, which can become a watered-down, occasional hope that you’ll get to tomorrow. Intention without action is useless.” ~ Caroline Myss

If you remember from Part 2; I covered how to set SMART goals, and plan for the next step Taking Action. Setting goals, and drawing up a plan is ultimately meaningless if you fail to take action to attain them.

Depending on how big your goals are, will determine how much you grow to feel motivated to achieve them. We can only achieve our goalsand take action if we have the motivation – that burning desire to do so. We need to apply that “go get em” attitude.

Think of your goals as your target destination – so the Action Plan is how you get there! This is the FIRE part of “READY-AIM-FIRE”

So often people produce fantastic SMARTER goals that just sit on the shelf and of course, nothing happens to make these goals become a success. Goals won’t magically happen just because you’ve written them down.

You still need to MAKE them happen, by taking action – FIRE!

The Key to Taking Action

The key to taking action on your goals is to integrate the goal’s action plan into your day-to-day routine and tasks, and that’s where it’s important to have Planners and Schedules.

It’s all about getting yourself organised!

‘Planners’ are specifically for listing the action items or steps to achieve your goals, and ‘schedules’ are used to see how your actions should pan out over the course of time and to identify any conflicts in resourcing.

‘Schedules’ will give you a visual representation of effort and how to achieve your goal. For example, if you prepare a yearly schedule, and it shows lots of activity in the first 3 months but not much after that, you either have a short term goal only with lots of mini-tasks or you’ve crammed too much into the early stages of your Action Plan – be realistic about how much you can take on at any one time.

‘Planners’ are used to incorporate your goal setting actions and day-to-day activities into the one memory-jogging list, and are the cornerstone to achieving your goals.

Depending on the goal, Planners could be a daily plan, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly or any-other suitable time frame. For example, a healthy eating and exercise plan may have daily actions if you want to be very specific about your activities, where as a budgeting plan may only have weekly actions, and career development goals may be even longer.

It doesn’t matter which timeframe you adopt – choose the one that best suits the level of control you want to have over the Action Plan. Daily action plans will have the highest level of control.

Find a system that works for you. The key here is to be organised, you may find it hard to be disciplined enough to stay organised, but it pays off as you start to achieve your goal. You’ll also be more productive and efficient in your day-to-day activities if you’re better organised.

Stay Clear of the Pitfalls

Now that you have set your goals, drawn up a plan, prepared your planners and schedules and you are highly motivated and you are full of desire, following through is all that’s left between you and success!

However the path to success can be filled with obstacles, make a point to avoid these pitfalls:

Procrastination: The enemy of all goals – make a conscious effort to avoid wasting time. Goals require a deliberate, disciplined mind-set every day.

Over-commitment: Schedule yourself within your means. Don’t try to do too much because you won’t have the energy to succeed.

Lack of balance: Simply put, you’ll never learn to play the guitar if you spend all your time playing football. Make time each week to pursue your goals.

Distraction: Stay focused on the things that are important to you. Learn to say no to the requests of others that don’t serve your goals or values.

Losing touch: It’s too easy to lose sight of what you want to achieve. Keep your goals front and centre in your life and visible to you during your planning sessions.

Remember: The journey of 1000 miles starts off with a single step! Each small action you take will determine the type of life you are GOING to be living!

The future is what you are pursuing, it is the constant ‘unfolding’ of actions that you’re going to take today, and also the actions you’re going to be taking tomorrow… into the future!

You should be very interested in your future, because you are going to spend the rest of your life there!

Do something today, which will improve the quality of your life tomorrow!

I couldn’t resist the Ready, Aim, Fire analogy I knew I would get it in one day!

To me I think one of the most important aspects in trying to achieve anything is being as organised as you can possibly be both with your time and effort. Schedules and Planners can certainly help you maintain your focus toward your target.

I think most of us Barry have succumbed to these pitfalls at some stage, but with a little insight we can do our best to avoid them.

Regarding Highlighter – I think it’s working ok now, after changing the “Speech Marks” in the permalink! – I’ll wait for you to tell me!

As an online entrepreneur and internet marketing coach myself, I would like to say that sometimes it is enough to do one important thing in order to succeed in online business. It is to start and to take the first step on the way to success.Terje Sannarnes recently posted..How an Entrepreneur Can Find New Business Ideas

Twitter: adriennesmith40I love that Ian, ready aim fire… I think that phrase suits this topic to a tee.

I’ve known people who love to plan but never follow through. Without taking action all the other steps are just a waste of time. I also know some people have difficulty with how to plan or organize their days but you point this out clearly here in this post. Follow along with what you have laid out and you’ll start to learn how to implement this into your own daily schedule.

We can’t forget about the pitfalls along the way either. Seems like it’s one thing after another right! But, if you have specific goals in mind, you definitely need to get it together. No ifs, ans or buts about it!

Twitter: kathydobsonHi Ian…
Powerful post full of important information.

Planning is something I was never very good at before I came online but I’ve found if I don’t plan my day I get lost in a maze of tasks that do not even count!

Ah…action. Yes, without action our dreams and visions have nothing to fill the pattern with. Without action our dreams remain in the realm of vision and imagination.
Action is what is needed to bring it into the physical realm…

So…I am a big believer in action steps. And, I might add that these action steps must take you through to completion.
Your pitfalls are right on target…I need to read that list every morning to remind myself!

This is a great series you’ve put together Ian…
Thanks for the great read!
KathyKathy Dobson recently posted..Blog Like an Expert

As of now, I’m starting to develop the right attitude towards achieving my goals. I already learned how to love what I’m doing and to avoid the feeling of giving up. Now, I need to deal with my focus. It’s pretty difficult for me to improve that aspect because of lots of things running in my mind but still I’m confident that I can make the necessary changes.Samantha recently posted..Millions of Americans Suffer from Destructive Teeth Grinding